South Korea donates money for weddings and relationships

For years, fewer and fewer children have been born in South Korea. In order to combat the persistently low birth rate, the authorities are now coming up with innovative measures.

The Saha District Office in Busan, for example, is taking a unique approach: It is organizing a blind date event aimed at Korean and foreign singles. This mass event in October is open to young adults between the ages of 23 and 43 who live or work in the district.

In addition to true love, there is also money to be won: if a man and a woman enter into a relationship after the event, they will receive a bonus of the equivalent of 635 francs.

But that’s not all: couples who arrange a traditional meeting between the couple’s families will receive an additional 1,275 francs. If the couples ultimately decide to get married, they will receive a bonus of 12,750 francs.

The exact rules and scope of the event are not yet known. The district office plans to carefully review the applications and conduct interviews to select the participants.

If the blind date event is a success, the authorities hope to make it an annual tradition. There are plans to expand the event to include more non-Korean participants in the future.